The Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed the first case of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 in the Philippines, which has been designated as a variant under monitoring by the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Control.
Also known as “Arcturus,” the variant’s first confirmed case in the country was detected in Western Visayas, based on the department’s latest COVID-19 biosurveillance report.
In the report, the DOH said: “The variant was initially flagged due to its increasing global prevalence and for having mutations which may lead to increase in infectivity or pathogenicity.”
“However, currently available evidence for XBB.1.16 does not suggest any differences in disease severity and/or clinical manifestations compared to the original Omicron variant,” it added.
So far, the Arcturus has now been reported in 33 countries, with India having the most number of documented cases.
Other offshoots of omicron has also been detected by the University of the Philippines – Philippine Genome Center Visayas and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and San Lazaro Hospital which included 13 XBB.1.5 cases, 14 XBB.1.9.1 cases, 28 BA.2.3.20 cases, 12 BA.5 cases, 3 XBC cases and 3 other omicron sublineages.
